The Blue Bears’ home opener against Virginia Union didn’t stand a chance of being played Saturday night.
Even as college officials deliberated canceling the game because of Tuesday’s terrorist attacks, another important decision loomed: an outbreak of meningitis had struck the Virginia Union campus, and some of the Panthers had been exposed.
Livingstone staff members were concerned for the safety of the players and coaches coming in contact with the bacterial or viral strains of the potentially deadly infection.
“As we understand it, the situation has been eradicated, but we don’t know what they’re doing,”Blue Bears head coach Greg Richardson said Wednesday. “We’ve talked with our commissioner and our administration as to whether it would be safe for our young men and staff to play against Virginia Union at this point.”
As it turned out, Livingstone President Algeania Freeman elected to cancel the game due to Tuesday’s attacks, rendering the meningitis scare moot.
No make-up date has been announced. The Blue Bears play host to Fayetteville State on Saturday, Sept. 22.
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MAJORS UPDATE: Blue Bears student-assistant coach Wayne Majors, a senior who played for the team prior to this season of coaching, has been removed from life support after steady improvement.
Majors was injured in an early morning crash several weeks ago when a man police say had been drinking fell asleep at the wheel and struck Majors’ car head on. Majors was in critical condition with head injuries at Carolinas Medical Center before responding to myriad treatments.
“He’s doing great. He’s off all that life-support stuff, he’s coherent, asking questions,”Richardson happily reported. “He is on the road to recovery.
“He’s not totally out of the woods yet, but he is fully functional, he is cognizant of his surroundings, he is able to sit up and move around and laugh and talk.”
All of which is great news for the Blue Bears in a week when positive news has been hard to find.
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No rest for the defense: A brief look at the offensive numbers in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association shows Livingstone dead last in seven of eight categories. Only a fourth-place showing in third-down efficiency saves the Blue Bears from a clean sweep.
There’s a reason Livingstone, despite those troubles, is 1-1 instead of 0-2. The defense is ranked among the league leaders in every category, second in total defense behind N.C. Central.
Sophomore linebacker Jason Ocean led the way in Livingstone’s 14-7 win at Edward Waters last Saturday. His 18 tackles, including six for 28 yards lost, earned him CIAA defensive line player of the week honors.
“Our defense played fairly well, got seven turnovers. Those are the kinds of things we need to have,”Richardson said.
Livingstone needs something else, though — offense.
“We don’t want to lean on our defense. We’d like to control the football, run the football and give our defense a little chance to rest,”Richardson said. “Our defense played 20 more snaps than the offensive team did last week.”
Turnovers — from both sides of the ball — played huge roles in both games. Against Catawba, the Blue Bears committed six turnovers in a 55-0 thrashing. In the victory against Edward Waters, Livingstone forced seven turnovers.
“When you get turnovers you have a chance to win games. We got some key turnovers in some situations where we really needed to,”Richardson said. “If we can continue doing those kinds of things, it’ll improve our chances to win football games.”
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Contact Steve Hanf at 704-797-4287 or shanf@salisburypost.com
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